New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA – Clear Channel Outdoor Americas (CCOA) (NYSE: CCO), a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, Inc., announced today with Rubicon Project (NYSE: RUBI), operator of one of the largest advertising marketplaces in the world, the development of the first automated programmatic Out-of-Home (OOH) buying solution – which, for the first time, makes CCOA’s digital billboard inventory available to programmatic buyers via Rubicon Project’s Private Marketplace (PMP). This will now enable advertisers and brands to purchase CCOA’s high-impact digital billboard inventory at scale, seamlessly, within a PMP. Built from the ground up by CCOA and Rubicon Project, this new digital OOH (DOOH) exchange combines CCOA’s significant reach of 1,000 digital billboards across 25 of its 29 digital U.S. markets with Rubicon Project’s leading technology platform.

This first-to-market offering positions CCOA and Rubicon Project to rapidly grow the programmatic buying market for OOH which was recently forecast by Zenith to grow faster globally than all other buying methods1 in 2017.

The solution blends ad tech and smart media with human intelligence and has seen early success in its first near-real-time buying pilot campaigns with clients, such as Matilda The Musical. CCOA maintains touchpoint with digital buyers allowing for greater transparency and smarter OOH buying.

In the pilot campaigns launched through the new technology integration, advertisers were able to transact OOH advertising buys through programmatic private marketplaces with leading demand side platforms (DSPs) that included MediaMath, TubeMogul & Rubicon Project’s own Enterprise Bidder feature, allowing digital marketers and media buyers to target distinct audience segments and bid on, and transact, against premium outdoor advertising space making billboards smarter and easier to buy.

Building upon the successful February 2016 nationwide launch of Clear Channel RADAR, a suite of research, data and analytics tools to help advertisers and agencies more effectively plan and buy CCOA media, this new programmatic platform taps into mobile data-driven audience insights and gives digital marketers the unique ability to buy DOOH inventory via the world’s leading private marketplace powered by Rubicon Project and apply the same sophisticated buying solutions they’ve come to expect in the ad tech space. Further, it streamlines OOH buying and boosts efficiency and budget control through ad automation allowing media budgets to be shifted, increased or decreased easily cross platform via PMP.

“We are excited to be first-to-market on an initiative that we believe represents a new frontier in media buying. The ability to programmatically buy digital billboard advertising against specific audience goals is a true innovation. Utilizing relevant data from Matilda The Musical’s online campaigns, we were able to deliver a more insightful, targeted OOH plan than ever before,” said Joshua Poole, Director, Media and Agency Innovations, AKA NYC.

“With this new programmatic capability through our partnership with Rubicon Project, buying outdoor ads can be done fluidly alongside desktop & mobile,” said Wade Rifkin, SVP, Programmatic, Clear Channel Outdoor Americas. “As more digital marketers invest programmatically, this is an opportunity to achieve the scale and impact of out of home through the same platform they’re using for cross-channel buying. CCOA’s programmatic solution marries data-driven decision-making with media locations in the physical world, where consumers are spending over 70 percent of their time, combining the best elements of physical and digital advertising together.”

Clear Channel International (CCI), the international division of Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO), is also developing a programmatic solution for the European advertising market and will be announcing its launch plans in January 2017.Following the completion of these initial U.S. campaigns, CCOA and Rubicon Project expect to integrate additional features and inventory for select advertisers. New Demand Side Platforms (DSPs) should also be available, including Adelphic, DataXu and Simpli.fi, to offer a roster of premier partners for activation based on a media buyer’s needs.

“At Rubicon Project, we remain steadfast in our commitment to pursue and present advertisers with opportunities to transact programmatically across all media types, in all formats, across all markets,” said Harry Patz, Chief Revenue Officer, Rubicon Project. “Digital out-of-home inventory is one of the fastest growing markets today with spending projected to reach $4.47 billion by 2019, accounting for more than half of the total OOH spending in the US. We are extremely excited to continue to be a pioneer in this exciting space having collaborated with Clear Channel Outdoor Americas to engineer the only solution available in the U.S. market today where advertisers are able to transact digital billboard inventory in a Private Marketplace.”